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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?


on Mon 05 of Apr., 2010 18:41 CEST, by smapdi user offline
I'm wondering if I can convert an existing USBoot XP instance to a virtual machine.

I tried this with no success:

Using Acronis True Image 10, I imaged a USBoot XP instance to a backup (.tib) image file.

Create a new XP virtual machine using VirtualBox.

Restore the .tib to the new VM. It works as expected *except* the VM blue screens soon after the ArcGuard loading thing is shown (see screenshots).

http://tinypic.com/r/vio6sw/5

http://tinypic.com/r/zltd74/5
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Wed 07 of Apr., 2010 23:17 CEST, by admin user offline Germany
> I'm wondering if I can convert an existing USBoot XP instance to a virtual machine.

Generally speaking it should be possible.

> I tried this with no success:
> Using Acronis True Image 10, I imaged a USBoot XP instance to a backup (.tib) image file.
> Create a new XP virtual machine using VirtualBox.
> Restore the .tib to the new VM. It works as expected *except* the VM blue screens soon after the ArcGuard loading thing is shown (see screenshots).

This will be most certainly be connected to the fact that you did not use USBoot's phase III to accomplish the transfer to the new (virtual) medium.

Is it possible to mount the virtual machines drive as a virtual drive in the host operating system?

Gerd
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Thu 08 of Apr., 2010 02:00 CEST, by smapdi user offline
> Is it possible to mount the virtual machines drive as a virtual drive in the host operating system?

Yes it seems so (my VirtualBox virtual disk is a .vdi file). However I think I have created a dynamically sized virtual disk so I might need to recreate the procedure with a fixed-size disk -- according to the thread writing to a dynamically sized disk is not possible.

I guess you are suggesting I run phase III and set the copy target as the mounted virtual disk?
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Thu 08 of Apr., 2010 11:49 CEST, by admin user offline Germany
> I guess you are suggesting I run phase III and set the copy target as the mounted virtual disk?

It should be sufficient to skip the first step of phase III (if the actual transfer of the files has already been accomplished by some other means) and just run the remaining steps with the mounted virtual disk as target.

Gerd
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Mon 12 of Apr., 2010 17:39 CEST, by smapdi user offline
> > I guess you are suggesting I run phase III and set the copy target as the mounted virtual disk?
>
> It should be sufficient to skip the first step of phase III (if the actual transfer of the files has already been accomplished by some other means) and just run the remaining steps with the mounted virtual disk as target.

So I was able to mount the .vdi using WinMount. I started with phase III, USBoot recognized the mount, and all seems to go normally until the very end. USBoot reports, "couldn't complete initialization of USBoot ArcGuard" then "program aborted before completion". (see screenshot)

Any ideas?
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Tue 13 of Apr., 2010 13:18 CEST, by admin user offline Germany
> So I was able to mount the .vdi using WinMount. I started with phase III, USBoot recognized the mount, and all seems to go normally until the very end. USBoot reports, "couldn't complete initialization of USBoot ArcGuard" then "program aborted before completion". (see screenshot)
>
> Any ideas?

Apparently WinMount does not support all the IOCTL-Codes that would be mandatory for real volumes/disks according to Microsofts guidelines.

Gerd
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Tue 13 of Apr., 2010 19:04 CEST, by smapdi user offline
> Apparently WinMount does not support all the IOCTL-Codes that would be mandatory for real volumes/disks according to Microsofts guidelines.

Thanks. I guess I could try some other mounting options before I throw in the towel.
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Wed 14 of Apr., 2010 00:07 CEST, by smapdi user offline
> I guess I could try some other mounting options before I throw in the towel.

Same results with another tool.

Any other options you can think of?

Thanks
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Wed 14 of Apr., 2010 14:15 CEST, by admin user offline Germany
> Any other options you can think of?

If you are just trying to boot an USBoot prepared installation (without using EWF!) inside a virtual machine from a virtual non-USB harddrive but are not able to apply the initialization of the USBoot ArcGuard using phase-III then you may also try to fully disable this component by setting the value "Start" in "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ubarcgd" to '4'.

Alternatively you could have a go with another virtual installation of XP (or a live XP from CD) as host for USBoot and adding the target virtual drive as an additional harddrive to the vm's hardware configuration.

Gerd
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convert USBoot XP to virtual machine?

on Thu 15 of Apr., 2010 04:38 CEST, by smapdi user offline
Success!

Probably this is all I needed to do from the beginning (disable ArcGuard). Even after the registry change, I never ended up having any success with trying to mount the .vdi. However, with the registry change, I was able to use Acronis True Image to image the USBoot XP to a .tbi then back to a VirtualBox VM .vdi, boot to it and use it as a VirtualBox VM. I had to re-activate it (XP Home) after the VM booting, but that was not an issue. Thanks for your help!!!
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